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Rikshasha remained expressionless, no matter what Tryndall said. Occasionally, her eyebrows knitted as she was lost in thought. And each time they did, the corpses of the corrupted Void Knights scattered across the ground were finished off by her Under-Elves. If it weren’t for the fact that the Void Knights were basically pieces of metal, she would have been drowning in their blood by now.

“Uther...” Rikshasha began.

"I know,” Uther replied.

Tryndall still couldn\'t calm down, and frowned at Rikshasha’s conversation with Uther. They continued to talk with each other, as though Tryndall were invisible.

“My energy is being drained quickly,” Rikshasha remarked.

“It’s as if…” Uther began.

“It seems the Underworld is sucking away our energy,” Rikshasha finished with a nod, then suddenly turned back and said, “After the Void Knights, the Tiger Dragons are next.”

Uther sighed as he looked at the Tiger Dragons. Black, bumpy veins were beginning to grow all over their bodies from the strange corruption. This was in contrast to the Dragon Knights, who still appeared relatively normal. 

“Kill them all,” Rikshasha ordered ruthlessly.

The Dragon Knights hesitated. They were loyal and valiant, but it was still difficult for them to execute the order. After all, the Tiger Dragons were pretty much an extension of themselves. But in the end, they were left with no choice, as they eventually killed the completely corrupted Tiger Dragons with their own bare hands.

***

“The Nagas were dealt with after the Tiger Dragons,” Uther reported after the expedition returned.

Kim Jin-Woo’s expression turned even more serious as he asked, “So these are all the ones that survived?”

Kim Jin-Woo had known from the very beginning that it wasn’t going to be an easy mission. That’s why he had emphasized that the expedition’s survival was more important than completing the mission.

But it seemed there were too many things beyond the passageway that he didn\'t know about. Thirty precious Dragon Knights had been sacrificed, and not even half of the Under-Elves had survived.

“This lowly, incapable servant has caused the sacrifice of Milord’s precious soldiers in vain! Please punish me!” Rikshasha, who had been on her knees before Kim Jin-Woo for some time, begged for her forgiveness as she pounded her head against the floor. 

Kim Jin-Woo replied, “Enough. You’re supposed to report to me what happened, instead of trying to break the innocent floor.”

Was it because he had too many things on his mind? Normally, Kim Jin-Woo would have checked on her safety first, but he reacted angrily this time. Rikshasha’s lips trembled, her expression bewildered and confused.

“The world beyond the passageway was full of malice. A shard of darkness and a strand of silence seemed to cling onto my body as it sapped away at my strength,” Uther, with his keen awareness, interjected at that moment.

Kim Jin-Woo, who had been looking at Rikshasha with an irritated gaze, turned to look at Uther as he listened to the report. “So you couldn’t figure out what it was, either,” he lamented as he stroked his scruffy chin.

“I’m uncertain as to what it was. But what I am certain of is that it wasn’t friendly to us,” Uther said.

After all, as even the loyal Naga Warriors had become corrupted and turned their backs on their own comrades, Kim Jin-Woo could understand how great the malicious influence was.

“At least one piece of the puzzle has been solved,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked. He now understood the reason for the blind madness of the enemies he had seen before. He understood clearly why they were so full of malice, and tried to destroy and kill everything else without a care for themselves.

But he had another doubt now, even though he had just dispelled one. “Hmm,” he mused.

Uther had said he felt his energy being drained even from just standing still. In fact, he had lost more than seventy percent of his slime mass when he returned two days later, and he wasn’t the only one who had experienced that effect. The Under-Elves who were barely able to return were reduced to skin and bones, to the point they resembled Valicius’ failed experiments. Rikshasha’s pale face looked like that of a corpse.

"Regardless, you’ve all done well.” Kim Jin-Woo clicked his tongue as he praised them for their hard work. Even though they had given him another cause for a headache, the expedition had brought about some results, so he couldn’t conclude that it had been a complete failure.

He gave Uther five down gems, which were already very precious on the 9th Floor, and said, “Head back and take care of yourself.” Uther thanked him profusely, then headed back to his own labyrinth.

In the meantime, Rikshasha, who had been lying on the floor with her head down all this time, flinched when Kim Jin-Woo cast a glance at her and said, “You decided to push forward with the mission after stopping Uther, even when he indicated that it would be best to return. You disobeyed my orders, but since you came back with some results, I’ll forget about your punishment, as well as your reward.”

Despite having said so, he couldn’t help but feel sorry after seeing her emaciated face. Eventually, he took out a precious summoning stone and gave it to her.

The other surviving Under-Elves were each given only one lowest-grade down gem. After all, the situation on the 9th Floor wasn’t good enough for him to readily replenish their energies completely.

***

After Rikshasha left with a dejected expression, Kim Jin-Woo fell into a deep dilemma. Dominique came up with a few ideas, but they didn’t help much because of the lack of information.

A long time passed.

For some reason, Angela still hadn’t been able to discover the whereabouts of the down gems that had made their way up to the surface. Kim Jin-Woo even wondered if Mr. Baek had smelled a rat.

But there was nothing suspicious about Mr. Baek’s behavior, so Kim Jin-Woo ordered Angela to keep an eye on him a little longer.

Meanwhile, Rikshasha made a big fuss, saying she would go back and spy on what was beyond the passageway. She was insistent with her request, stating that she would be able to hold on for longer by making use of the Under-Elves instead of the Nagas.

Kim Jin-Woo finally relented and allowed her to do so, but cautioned, “Don’t overextend yourself. You’re much more important than the Dragon Knights.” 

Rikshasha upgraded herself further with Kim Jin-Woo providing her with an additional summoning stone. She managed to rally a few hundred more Under-Elves from across the Underworld to beef up his forces, as she busied herself playing multiple roles, including scouting and assassination.

Even though he was reluctant to send her on such a risky mission again, the secrets hidden beyond the passageway were important enough to take such a risk for. Her findings could provide a clue to ending the war, which was draining his power without any tangible results.

“I’ll keep it in mind thoroughly!” Despite having been scolded severely just a few days back, Rikshasha smiled brightly in response, touched by Kim Jin-Woo’s casual remarks. Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t help but look away, feeling a slight sense of guilt over his past treatment of her.

Rikshasha left once more. Alongside her went twenty Under-Elves that she had hand-picked. Kim Jin-Woo guessed that she probably wouldn’t return until she was able to find some tangible results from the expedition.

However, Rikshasha returned to the Fortress much earlier than he had anticipated, fewer than three days after she had left. Once again, under a quarter of the Under-Elves she had brought with her managed to return, but the results of their risky mission were incomparable to the previous expedition.

“Among all the beings I, your lowly servant, encountered beyond the passageway, this was the only one who still retained some intellect,” Rikshasha said. She had brought a man with her, his skin as dry as the bark of a tree.

To Kim Jin-Woo’s surprise, the man was a being from the Other Underworld. He didn\'t have the ferocious red eyes of the raiders. He had scars all over his body, with no ugly dark blue veins or tendons protruding from his skin. When Rikshasha gave him a look, he hesitantly approached Kim Jin-Woo and kneeled in front of him with his head lowered.

“I want to hear your story,” Kim Jin-Woo said, staring imposingly from his throne. Daunted by his demeanor, the man began to speak after a slight moment of hesitation.

Kim Jin-Woo’s expression hardened. He looked back at Rikshasha, who was standing next to the man, and asked, “What did he just say?”

Underworld beings that could speak human language weren’t uncommon. The man had that ability, but he spoke a language Kim Jin-Woo didn’t understand. Just as the creatures of the Underworld of Korea could speak Korean, the boy naturally spoke in a foreign language. 

Fortunately, Rikshasha could communicate with the man. Since he was an Underworld being, what he spoke wasn’t necessarily the foreign human language per se, but the language of his own race, albeig attuned to the country his Underworld was tied to. Thankfully, the language he spoke was similar to that of the Under-Elves, as the two continued to communicate.

***

“Urgh.” Kim Jin-Woo let out a low groan.

“In short, the place beyond the passageway is Hell.” Rikshasha said, trying to read his mind while bearing a guilty expression, as if she had sinned.

“Hell, huh…” Kim Jin-Woo silently repeated the word. It was by no means an exaggeration. If what the man had said was true, the word ‘Hell’ wasn’t enough to describe it accurately.

Even Dominique, who had been listening in, couldn’t help but let out a whisper, “It sounds more serious than we initially thought.”

Even Morrigan said nervously from beside Kim Jin-Woo, “If that’s serious, then the current war in our Underworld is but mere child’s play.”

It wasn’t just Morrigan; everyone gathered in the master room talked about the seriousness of the situation. The man’s words were a revelation for them.

“It’s a nightmare,” Kim Jin-Woo said, sharing their sentiments.

“So, is there no hope over there?” Rikshasha interpreted his question for him, translating back and forth.

The young man, who looked suffocated by the serious atmosphere around him, stammered as he replied, “More than half of those in their Underworld have already been transformed into Moai, and the rest of them are terrified because they don’t know when they’ll become infected. Every day is Hell to them.”

Moai[1] was the term used to refer to the Underworld creatures that had been forcibly transformed. Those who had lost their sanity due to being deprived of their energy would eventually be corrupted by the malice lingering in the Underworld. Their insatiable hunger was leading them on the path to extinction.

The many enemies who crossed the passageway were none other than Moai. However, the biggest problem in the current situation wasn’t the Moai.

“If we don’t solve the problem of down gems, I’m afraid we’ll face the same situation,” the young man said. Unfortunately, his Underworld, with its down gems exhausted, was also corrupting the Underworld creatures. That terrible lingering malice was the real problem that Kim Jin-Woo had to worry about.

After much deep thinking, Kim Jin-Woo finally said, “We’ll inform the Underworld Counts about this.”

This wasn’t a problem that he could solve alone. The depletion of down gems was the problem of the entire Underworld, not just the 9th Floor. If he couldn’t solve it, it wouldn’t be a victory for him, even if he were to defeat all of his enemies in the war. 

“Maybe the Counts are already aware of this problem. Even so, we need to confirm this with them. With luck, they may have a solution,” he said.

Someday he would have to defeat the Deep Floor Counts, but he needed to maintain a friendly relationship with them for now. Now that the Black Merchants had disappeared, he needed their cooperation more than ever.

“Do you think they’ll give out that information so willingly?” Dominique asked.

Kim Jin-Woo responded with a stern expression, “Tell them I’m going to have them pay their due from a year ago. Even they won\'t be able to ignore that.”

1. This is a direct transliteration of the term used by the author. In this case, it doesn’t refer to the stone heads on Easter Island, but is specific to this novel.